R D M R — Angelic voices promising to lift you to another world: The Sixteen announce its 2025 programming

Angelic voices promising to lift you to another world: The Sixteen announce its 2025 programming

World Premieres: Three world premieres by Lucy Walker, Millicent B James and Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade explore angels as divine signs in a spiritual dimension in concerts in London and Cumnock. A new commission for Choir and Violin by Anna Clyne will be toured as part of the annual Choral Pilgrimage.

Palestrina & Pärt: The Sixteen celebrates Palestrina's 500th and Pärt's 90th anniversaries with performances of their works, including a concert series dedicated solely to Palestrina in association with Wigmore Hall, and works by Pärt featuring as part of the Choral Pilgrimage repertoire.
Debut at Tanglewood: The Sixteen will make its Tanglewood debut, conducted by Harry Christophers, for a rendition of the critically acclaimed programme A Deer’s Cry, featuring works by William Bryd and Arvo Pärt.
Tour to Japan: For the fifth time in its 45-year history, The Sixteen will travel to Japan on tour to Tokyo, Kanagawa, Kyoto and Fukuoka.
Sounds Sublime: The Sounds Sublime Choral Festival at St James’s Piccadilly investigates the abilities of the human voice, with workshops for 0-18s and special family events. The festival also celebrates performances from youth voices and Genesis Sixteen.

In its 2025 programming, The Sixteen honours the timeless connection between words and music, how the divine and heavenly can be evoked through choral compositions. This year, The Sixteen will give the world premiere of works by Anna Clyne, Lucy Walker, Millicent B James and Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, in addition to championing the divine beauty of works by Giovanni Palestrina and Arvo Pärt in their anniversary years. Expanding its international offering, The Sixteen will tour to Japan at the end of the year, in addition to giving its debut performance at Tanglewood. This season’s programming will also see the return of The Sixteen’s annual festival to inspire the next generation – Sounds Sublime – which returns to St James’s Piccadilly this Summer.

Looking ahead to Palestrina 500, and The Sixteen’s 2025 programming, founder and conductor of The Sixteen Harry Christophers, says:

‘I have always regarded Palestrina as the master craftsman whose music composers of all ages have attempted to emulate. He shapes his music in a beautifully sonorous way using many suspensions but always coming back into the line of the music. However, it is this perfect craftsmanship that can sometimes make Palestrina's music sound all too perfect and occasionally academic. We have attempted to achieve real ebb and flow in his music, not clipping the ends of phrases but allowing the music to breathe, to convey the real meaning of the words and making our breaths part of the music as a whole. There is a wealth of word painting in which to indulge especially in his Song of Songs motets. Our aim has been to be sensitive to this wonderful poetry and inject an energy and beauty into our performances that I hope goes some way to honour Palestrina as the celebrated light of music.’

International Performances and Tours

Tanglewood: A Deer’s Cry (Tanglewood Music Centre, 14 August)

The Sixteen will make its Tanglewood debut, conducted by Harry Christophers, for a rendition of the critically acclaimed programme A Deer’s Cry, featuring works by William Bryd and Arvo Pärt. Though composing centuries apart, the programming brings together two composers who both faced considerable persecution for their work - William Byrd, a catholic, living in post-Reformation England and Arvo Pärt born in the former soviet republic of Estonia.

Recently returned from its first tour of North America in over 20 years, The Sixteen will once again bring the music of two great masters of vocal writing to new audiences.

Tour to Japan: Heavenly Harmony (20 -24 November)

For the fifth time in its 45-year history, and for the first time in two decades, The Sixteen will travel to Japan for four performances across the country, celebrating Palestrina’s 500th anniversary. Beginning in Tokyo (20 November), the choir under the direction of Harry Christophers will also perform in Kanagawa (22 November), Kyoto (23 November) and Fukuoka (24 November), as well as giving a Choral Workshop to singers in Kanagawa whilst on the tour.

Oslo International Church Music Festival: Heavenly Harmony (Oslo Cathedral, 30 March at 7pm)

Performing in the last concert of the Oslo International Church Music Festival, The Sixteen presents Heavenly Harmony, a musical journey from the Middle Ages to today, with music by Hildegard of Bingen, John Taverner, Giovanni Palestrina, James MacMillan and Arvo Pärt

In a year that marks both the 500th anniversary of Palestrina and the 90th birthday of Pärt, The Sixteen demonstrates the craft of Choral Writing across the centuries, looking to Palestrina’s Song of Songs and Pärt’s Tribute to Ceasar, Da pacem Domine and Magnificat. The concert also features MacMillan’s Mitte Manum and O radiant dawn, Hildegard’s Ave, generosa, and Taverner’s Gaude plurimum and O splendor gloriae.

World Premieres

Choral Pilgrimage: Angel of Peace (Touring 17 March – 4 October)

Offering tranquillity in a world of resurgent conflict and frenetic demands on our attention, The Sixteen’s 2025 Choral Pilgrimage: Angel of Peace provides a slice of stillness across music spanning six centuries.

From the songs of the medieval abbess Hildegard of Bingen to the realm of a brand-new work by the contemporary composer Anna Clyne, nine pieces of music including works by Pärt and Tavernerdemonstrate how music from across the centuries can speak of peace, acceptance, ecstatic joy and reassurance. This year’s tour takes its title from words by Cardinal Newman, set to music by Will Todd - Let me be an angel of peace, commissioned by the Genesis Foundation for The Sixteen in 2021. Newman’s meditation on the challenge of existence presents a reflection for modern life.

Angel of Peace will tour across the UK, visiting over twenty locations, beginning at Croydon Minster (17 March) and finishing at Chichester Cathedral (4 October). An album of the same name will be released on the CORO label on Friday 7 March, featuring the programme from the 2025 Choral Pilgrimage. The album will also be available in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos.

The Sixteen: Voice of Angels (St James’s Piccadilly, 22 May at 7pm & St John’s Church, Cumnock 24 May at 7:30pm)

Three new works by Lucy Walker, Millicent B James and Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, will receive world premieres by The Sixteen in a programme exploring divine signs in a spiritual dimension. The new works are inspired by poems the late Robert Willis, former Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, who widely accepted the concept of angels in the minds and hearts of people of all faiths and none. Robert’s poems, also commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, are a series of works understanding Angels as messengers, ministers, warriors and worshippers. The Sixteen’s return to Cumnock marks the 10th anniversary of the Cumnock Tryst and is supported by the Genesis Foundation. The performance in Cumnock is particularly significant, as The Sixteen were an integral part of the opening season a decade ago.

The three new commissions form the core programme devoted to texts reflecting the importance of angels in the present and the past. Crutwell-Reade’s The Call of Gideon, James’s The Call of Isaiah and Walker’s The Song of James the Son of Zebedee sit alongside Guerro’s Duo Seraphim, Palestrina’s Ave maris stella and Angelus Domini descendit de caelis, Victoria’s Ne timeas Maria and Alma redemptoris Mater a8, and James MacMillan’s Nothing in vain.

Celebrating Palestrina in the 500th Anniversary

The Sixteen at St James’s, Spanish Place: Palestrina: In Praise of Women (14 May at 7:30pm)

Forming part of Wigmore Hall’s residency at St James’s Spanish Place, The Sixteen visits the church to venerate the women at the heart of the Old and New Testament, as told through Palestrina’s music. Performing works solely by Palestrina in this concert, The Sixteen bring his intricate acapella polyphony through these divine works, including excerpts from Missa Regina Coeli and Missa Assumpta est Maria, in addition to the revered Salve regina a5.

The Sixteen at St James’s, Spanish Place: The breaking of bread (18 June at 7:30pm)

Following on from Palestrina’s hopeful call of prayer and love for biblical women, The Sixteen brings the music of the Eucharist to St James’s, Spanish Place in association with Wigmore Hall. As a symbolic reenactment of the Last Supper, this holy moment in the Church’s liturgy receives dedication from Palestrina through his works that speak of unconditional love and eternal hope. The Sixteen will perform the ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Gloria’ from Missa Fratres ego enim accepi, as well as Ego sum panis vivus, Stabat Mater and Quam Pulchra es as part of a varied programme of the composer’s liturgical repertoire.

Egerton Music Festival, Good Night, Good Night Beloved (St James’ Church, Egerton, 6 July at 7:30pm)

Ten singers from The Sixteen, and narrators Antonia Christophers and Noel Byrne, will perform on the final day of Egerton Music Festival featuring a special programme drawing on the connection of spoken word, with poetry by Rosetti, Wordsworth, Shelley and T S Eliot, accompanying the music of Palestrina, Byrd, Hildegard, Finzi, Sheppard and Stanford.

Learning and Participation

Choral Festival: Sounds Sublime 2025 at St James’s Piccadilly (12 July, 10am – 6pm)

The Sixteen’s annual festival, Sounds Sublime, returns to St James’s Piccadilly for a journey of youth voice, encouraging new performers, celebrating youth talent and exploring pathways in the industry.

The festival will explore first explorations of singing with interactive family workshops for 0-5s, 6-11s and 12–18-year-olds, as well as providing a platform for keen singers, children’s choirs and youth ensembles to come and perform.

The festival line-up includes the return of Choral Tots, a fun and relaxing space for under 5s to experience choral music, a Family Singalong, workshop sessions and pop-up performances for children’s and youth choirs. The current cohort of Genesis Sixteen, The Sixteen’s free young artists’ programme for 18–23-year-olds, will sing out the festival with a performance of works and repertoire that they have developed under the guidance of leaders Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan throughout the 24/25 season.

CORO

The Sixteen’s award-winning record label, CORO, will release Angel of Peace on Friday 7 March ahead of the Choral Pilgrimage tour commencing at Croydon Minster. The Sixteen also feature on a collection of Messiah Choruses released on CORO on Friday 4 April.

An extensive collection of Palestrina recordings are also available on the label, with nine volumes of the composer’s works available to listen and stream.